At her last job, which lasted for 18 years, Deborah Arroyo never had to work on Labor Day. She had full-time regular shifts, good pay - $30 an hour - health insurance, union protection.

Now Arroyo would be only too happy to be working on the labor holiday created by Congress and President Grover Cleveland in 1894. Having searched fruitlessly for re-employment for the past 3 1/2 years, she'd snap up a job without the benefits and pay she was accustomed to.

Her savings are gone, as is her 18-year marriage to a co-worker who was also laid off, and she relies on her adult children to help pay the bills. "I'm way, way in debt," she said. Arroyo is one of the 4,700 workers who lost their jobs when New United Motor Manufacturing Inc. closed its doors in Fremont in March 2010. Thousands more working for the plant's suppliers were thrown on the unemployment rolls, and numerous suppliers went out of business. All told 25,000 mostly Bay Area residents are estimated to have been impacted by the closure.

Like millions of other Americans, thousands of ex-Nummi workers have yet to find a place in the very different, post-recession economy. "It used to be a worker's world. Now it's an employer's world," said Teresa Rodriguez, an employment recruiter who has counseled several hundred ex-Nummi employees, explaining the difficulties they face.

Nummi's start

A joint project of Toyota and General Motors, Nummi had been operating since 1984 at the 400-acre Fremont plant, rolling out Corolla sedans, Tacoma pickups and GM's now-defunct Geo Prizm and Pontiac Vibe. It was America's most sophisticated auto plant, its workers, trained in advanced production techniques, churning out America's best-selling car, the Corolla. "How a plant changed the culture of car making," was the title of a valedictory piece in Popular Mechanics in 2010.

Yet its demise wasn't a surprise. The writing was on the wall when bankrupt GM pulled out of the joint venture six months earlier, and even Toyota was suffering from the ravages of the Great Recession. However, it was still a shock to workers who thought the plant would ultimately be saved. "We were building the best-built cars and trucks in the United States," said Arroyo, who worked on the Corolla and Tacoma assembly lines.

The shock continues to reverberate, with many Nummi workers still hurting badly. "I'm still talking to people sleeping in their car, asking friends if they can stay with them," said Tony Camillo, a 19-year Nummi veteran who now works with former colleagues to get them back on their feet. "I take them to food banks and get them clothing. Many lost their homes. I'd say 25 percent are having a really, really hard time."

Apart from the mass layoffs and the collateral damage done to the local economy, the shutdown blew a hole in the Bay Area's aspiration to be a center of what was then considered advanced manufacturing. A $30 million federal, state and locally funded Nummi Regional Plant Closure Project, involving community colleges, adult schools, trade organizations and local businesses was launched to get Nummi employees retrained and re-employed.

Settling for less

For all its hard and valuable work, the results are about as good as could be expected, given present-day realities. Of the 3,253 Nummi and supplier employees who participated in the project, 1,456 - less than half - found new jobs, according to a report compiled last month by the Alameda County Workforce Investment Board, which oversees the program.

Those fortunate enough to find work are making considerably less than they used to - an average of $19.70 per hour, which is not bad by today's standards. Some - managers, electricians or those with a college education - are making more. Many are making way below $19.70 an hour, judging by a list of filled jobs in a July report from the investment board - drivers, sales workers, janitors, stock clerks. It's hard to imagine that those who didn't enroll have done much better.

"Some are resistant to the ways the economy is providing jobs now," Rodriguez said.

Arroyo, 61, is not one of them. She went through one of the project's training programs, to be a medical assistant. All that's come of it so far is a six-month unpaid internship at a doctor's office. There have been a few minimum-wage jobs, involving garbage disposal and kitchen work. Currently she's volunteering at Washington Hospital in Fremont and a free clinic in San Lorenzo.

The $17,000 payment she received from Toyota - Nummi employees received $1,000 (taxable) for each year they worked - is long gone, causing her to dip into her 401(k). There are eight people living in her house in Fremont, including two of her adult children, and four of their children. "If it wasn't for my kids living with me I don't know what I do," she said.

Adrian Brown will be working on Labor Day. Nineteen years on the assembly line, and a few minimum-wage gigs unloading boxes and stocking shelves since, she landed a job with United Continental at SFO last month. So, finally, did her husband and son, both of whom also worked at Nummi before the shutdown. The best her husband had been able to find was the occasional job, "a day here and a day there," through a temp agency; her son worked a minimum-wage job at Sears for a while. "I had to cash in my 401(k) early," she said.

A new job

At age 57, Brown is now a United baggage handler on half-day shifts, which include weekends and holidays, and is on six-month probation pending permanent hire. The job pays $12 an hour, plus medical, and Brown gets to join the International Association of Machinists, which represents baggage handlers at United and other airlines. Not what it was, but better than what Brown and her family have been through since Nummi shut down.

"It's way below $30 (an hour), but we know we'll never find that again," she said. "I'm fine with working on Labor Day."

Some have returned to their old stomping ground, courtesy of Tesla, which took over a chunk of the plant when Nummi folded. Not nearly as many as expected back in 2010, when Tesla CEO Elon Musk said, "hiring former Nummi workers is a priority for us," which, at the beginning, meant 25 or so former Nummi employees. That number has increased significantly as the electric car maker ramps up production of its popular Model S.

Tesla jobs

"We've hired hundreds since we went into production," said spokeswoman Shanna Hendriks. She would not disclose specific numbers or information about pay, but sources say shop floor wages at Tesla have risen from $13 an hour to approximately $19 an hour today. As of Friday, there were 126 openings in Fremont posted on Tesla's career site. Maybe the company will be the answer to a number of Bay Area prayers - the springboard for 21st century manufacturing, a resurgent auto industry, and many more jobs for former Nummi workers. Not like the days when Juan Carrera, who worked for Nummi for 25 years, was able to retire comfortably thanks largely to a generous defined pension from an earlier 17-year stint at GM.

"Fortunately for me I was 61 when they closed the plant," said Carrera, who was able to leave on his own terms after four decades in the industry.

"Some of my friends haven't been so lucky," said Carrera, who is spending Labor Day with members of his family, which includes 14 grandchildren. "I just wish everybody could get to this point at some time in their life."